BELIZE CITY, Mon. Oct. 12, 2020– In the wee hours of Sunday morning, October 11, a drug plane landed on a farm between Crooked Tree and Shipyard Village. Belize authorities tracked the plane as it entered our airspace, but were outmaneuvered for about half an hour, giving the narco-traffickers enough time to off-load, destroy and bury the plane in a shallow hole.
Commissioner of Police Chester Williams said, “This time around, the plane entered our airspace just around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. It flew over and went north, and then it went south and disappeared from the radar.
“A few minutes later, around 4:30, we were notified by the Mexican air asset that the plane was sighted on the ground behind Crooked Tree near the Shipyard area, which is a very remote area. May I say that we had a possible landing spot that was already lighted for the plane to land, and we were in that area waiting, but somehow, the plane shifted and went and landed in this extremely remote area, which is not even an airstrip – it actually landed on a farm.”
When police and BDF arrived at the location of the landing, no plane or persons were in sight. They did notice, however, a mangled area of the ground with objects protruding, and saw three pieces of heavy equipment — an excavator, a bulldozer, and a tractor. They then realized that the drug plane had been destroyed and buried.
Police got someone to unearth the wrecked plane. They then recovered the engine and allowed crime scene personnel to swab the interior of the plane.
No drugs were found on the landing site or near the immediate or outer area. Commissioner Williams believes that the drug cargo is in Mexico by now, considering the close proximity of that country’s border to the landing site.
Also, Commissioner Williams said that the operation could have had help from Belizean participants on the ground. Police are currently trying to locate the owner of the farm where the landing took place and the owner of the heavy equipment that was left behind.
Unofficial reports are that three men were detained for questioning, and it is being said that one of those persons is believed to be the owner of the heavy equipment.
In the past we have seen drug planes partially burnt, or poorly hidden; some even blown up. The makeshift entombment of a narco-plane, however, is a first for Belize.
In a June 2020 interview, Commissioner Williams said that four confiscated drug planes were sold by the Government of Belize for around $400,000.00, a mere fraction of the market value.